Metamorphosis
by KazraGirl
Summary: A girl from our world is taken to theirs, but her fate is not that of those who have preceeded her (Please R and R! Twisty plot!) Chapter 5!
1. Sucked in

(( Only Cara/Cariana belongs to me, no one else at the moment does. Please review!))  
  
Cara sat in the cinema, in her usual seat near the side. As always, she had arrived early for the film. She settled herself down, legs stretching out as she made herself comfortable. She knew from experience that after the first couple of hours she would start to ache from sitting still for to long. She shrugged her coat off her shoulders and wiggled deeper into her seat. Settled now properly, she tilted her head back and looked at the screen. Her mind wandered. She had seen this film two times already and she was still anticipating the moment when the lights would dim and the characters would appear on the screen.  
  
Her housemates thought that she was crazy to see a film more than once, but Cara didn't really care what they thought. She enjoyed herself, nothing else mattered. She took a brief glance around at the rest of the cinema. It was empty apart from her. Well, it was a Sunday, and this was the earliest showing of the film.  
  
She wiggled in her seat again, as the lights began to dim and the tinny music that was meant to keep people amused faded away as the screen flickered into life. Cara settled back as "The Fellowship of the Ring." started.  
  
She was swept up on the wings of her imagination as the film started, carried along by the story. As she watched, the story of the Ring was told, from its forging, to the great battle where Isildur took up the ring and claimed it for his own. She watched as Frodo was introduced, humming along with the music (sad thing that she was, she had bought the CD of the soundtrack.) She was mesmerised by the film as it unfolded before her.  
  
As Strider led them to Weathertop, or Amon Sul as it was called in the film, Cara fidgeted in her seat. She felt warm, and for some reason, prickly. Her attention was diverted from the film, and she looked downwards, shuffling around. She hoped that she wasn't coming down with the flu bug that many of her fellow trainee teachers had come down with. She raised her eyes to the screen and tried to immerse herself in the plot to forget her physical feeling. But she couldn't. She felt her mind wandering off track, and a headache starting behind her temples. Lights danced before her eyes, and nausea swelled in her. The screen seemed to expand and shrink before her eyes as she looked and the voices of the characters rose and well. She swallowed hard, before darkness overcame her.  
  
She stirred slowly. She heard voices above her, but couldn't make out the words, just the burbling of sound in a rhythmical pattern. Her whole body ached like it was one large bruise, but something felt different about her. She took a deep breath, and air rushed into her lungs. Air that was rich with the scent of night. She was no longer in the cinema. She wiggled gently on the surface that she lay on. Rock. Where was she? But before she opened her eyes, she tried to discover what felt different about her. Then she realised. She had written about this sensation often enough to recognise it when it had happened to her. In her writing, every human had a space inside him or her, where magic would normally be. But since time immemorial, the vital spark had been missing, except for a few cases where people had developed it. Cautiously, she tried something that she could only have dreamed about before. She kept her eyes closed, but opened her mind to the world outside.  
  
Above her were standing two figures. One was tall, clad in green and black, with shoulder length black hair and rugged features. She recognised him instantly. How could she not, after just watching him on the screen? Beside him was standing a smaller figure, with black hair waving back form his forehead, and blue eyes. His face had a haunted look about it. Cara recognised him as well.  
  
The sounds that could have been words slowly formed into recognisable shapes.  
  
"You stay here and watch over our mystery woman. I'm going to have a look around."  
  
As Cara watched through the closed skin of her eyelids, she saw the taller figure leave, and the smaller figure move away from above her.  
  
Once she was satisfied that they couldn't se her, she cracked one eye open slightly. It was dark, and slightly cold. She shivered. Everything was strange. Nothing seemed to be right with the world. Somehow, she had been carried here, into the film by the looks of things. How would she manage?  
  
Then an idea slowly dawned on her. Here, they didn't know anything about her, they didn't know who she was, where she came from, what she could do. She could be anyone she wanted to be. And out of the myriad denizens of her mind, one surfaced who would be ale to cope. The one that was based on herself, but was everything that Cara was not. Outgoing, highly intelligent, and powerful. Cariana. She concentrated on her character, and felt the warmth of her new magic spread through her body, altering things so that she resembled her character more. Nothing that anyone would immediately notice though.  
  
She opened her eyes fully now, unafraid of being discovered. No one seemed to take any notice of her, so she sat up. Immediately, four sets of eyes turned to look at her.  
  
"So, our mystery woman is awake now?" one of those around the fire asked. Cariana watched, and identified those before her. There was Meriadoc, Perigrin, Frodo and Samwise, also known as Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam. She /was/ in the film.  
  
"Yes, I'm awake now. What happened to me?" she didn't think they'd know, but it was worth asking.  
  
"We just found you here, unconscious." Frodo told her. "Don't you remember what happened?"  
  
"Not really." She replied. They wouldn't believe the truth anyway.  
  
The hobbits then left her alone, and she lay back down to doze slightly. She was remembering the plot of the film as to what was going to happen next. She inched one eye open again. Frodo was lying down, sleeping, and the other three were starting a fire. She shuddered in realisation. Nazgul! A swift thought, and a sword materialised beside her, and the hilt in her hand gave her some comfort. She hadn't a clue whether she could use it or not, but… Then she realised. She carefully cast her mind out to Aragorns, and gently lifted a copy of all his sword fighting knowledge out of his mind and deposited it in hers. Now she had more chance of defending herself. 


	2. Battle

((Okay, I read over the ending, and decided that it sucked, big time. So, here is the next chapter, looks like Cara isn't going to die at the moment ))  
  
She must have fallen asleep again, for she was abruptly brought back to wakefulness by an anguished scream and a call that echoed in her skull. "Strider!"  
  
Cariana found herself on her feet, sword in hand and a blazing torch in the other. Memories rushed back, engulfing her, but the one thing that stood out in her mind was what was to happen here.  
  
She darted for the stairs, and crested them rapidly. Frodo was backed into a corner, his face contorted with agony as he clutched at his shoulder. In front of him stood Aragorn, or Strider as he was known in this time and place. With sword and torch he held the Ringwraiths off. Cariana straightened. ((Her blonde hair shifted about her shoulders and her clothing changed from jeans and a shirt that looked strange and out of place here, to black trousers, black tunic, boots and a deep blue cloak.)) Feeling more confident now she was more fully Cariana than Cara, she drew on the knowledge that she had copied from Aragorn and moved forward to the attack. The movements of the swordsman came easily to her and she let her body flow through the motions. With fire and with blade, Aragorn and Cariana routed the Nazgul. As the last Ring wraith fled, a blazing brand embedded into whatever lay beneath the inky hood, Strider moved swiftly to where the stricken Frodo lay.  
  
Cariana watched as Strider examined the wound and pronounced it beyond his ability to heal. With her newly acquired magic, Cariana considered trying to heal him, but decided against it. She was too new at this and might unwittingly cause more damage than she healed.  
  
They fled into the forest with Strider carrying Frodo, eerie wails echoing in a fearful chorus around them. They halted beside a large rock (which Cariana noted to herself was one of the trolls that tried to eat Bilbo and was turned to stone by the sun.)) and Strider once more examined Frodo and shook his head.  
  
"He is fading fast." He said.  
  
"Is there not something that could slow the progress of the poison through his body?" Cariana asked, hoping to jog his memory.  
  
Aragorn looked at her before he nodded, animation coming back to his grim face for an instant. "Aye, the Athalus plant."  
  
He turned to Sam and asked for his advice, before the two headed off in search of the herb, leaving Cara alone with the other hobbits.  
  
((That better?)) 


	3. Questions

((A/N Well, here's the next chapter. Sorry it took so long to post, had a touch of writers block for this, but the next chapter should be more speedy in appearing. As before, only Cariana belongs to me. Please R and R!))  
  
Cariana stayed in the background as Sam and Aragorn left, her presence going unnoticed. And for this she was glad. She was still finding her feet, still learning to cope with the reality of someone else's world. Merry and Pippin crowded round the injured Frodo, looking anxious as the spine chilling wails of the Nazgul echoed through the dark wood.  
  
Then hoof beats were heard as a white horse cantered into the clearing.  
  
"Undomiel." Cariana breathed as the elf slid easily down and moved to Frodo, beginning to speak in elvish. Mentally, Cariana began to translate what she was saying. Since Merry, Pippin and Sam had not her advantage of seeing the subtitles, and looked confused.  
  
As Arwen took Frodo and began to ride for Rivendell, Sam spoke, his voice fraught.  
  
"What are you doing? Those wraiths are still out there!"  
  
"Do you think that he does not know that?" Cariana asked softly, stepped forward. "But he trusts in Arwen."  
  
All eyes turned to her now as they became aware of her presence there.  
  
"Who are you?" Aragorn asked curiously, though his expression showed that he was distracted by the thought of Arwen, even now being perused by the Nazgul even if Aragorn didn't know that.  
  
"My name is Cariana." She identified herself. "A traveller, a wanderer." It was a more reasonable explanation than the truth.  
  
"What happened to you?" Merry asked, referring to when they found her but his eyes were looking in the direction Frodo and Arwen had gone in.  
  
Cariana paused, unsure how to answer the question, but Aragorn spared her.  
  
"Questions can wait till we reach the sanctuary of Rivendell. Let us go."  
  
Cariana let the others take the lead, following slowly as she considered what she would say, and what would be believed. And once she had reached Rivendell, what then? What would she do when the fellowship formed? 


	4. Conversation and change

(A/N Well, here is the fourth chapter. Many, many thanks go to Christian, one of my housemates for giving me the idea of where this story was going. Thank you! Please R and R)  
  
Rivendell. A gem that glowed in the beams of sunlight, back dropped by tree- covered slopes and tumbling waterfalls.  
  
Cariana leant on the balcony of her room and gazed outwards. Beneath her Frodo was being reunited with his friends. She still felt disbelief at being sucked into the film, and shock at finding herself in events that she had eagerly watched.  
  
She could feel her magic bubbling up inside her, a fountain waiting to be tapped. It was a strange sensation, but comforting to her. She let it bubble up towards her hand and her mind shaped the trickle.  
  
A necklace shimmered into being, three strands of gold, silver and black plaited together to form one single strand. From it hung a gemstone, a sapphire, carved into the shape of a star.  
  
"How easy this seems." She murmured, before she closed her hand over the necklace, feeling it melt into her palm until no trace of it was left.  
  
"But at home, this would be impossible." How easily she had adapted to this world it seemed. Her mind was focused on Middle Earth, running through the past, the present and the future.  
  
"What is to be done?" she asked herself quietly.  
  
"To be done about what?" came a new voice from behind her. So engrossed in her thoughts had she been that she had not heard the entrance of another. She turned from her distracted contemplation of the view to find Elrond, the Lord of Rivendell behind her.  
  
"To be done about my presence here." She admitted, torn. She would have dearly loved to confess all her troubled thoughts and feelings to Elrond, but knew that by doing this she could alter things. But how could she alter them any more?  
  
"I do not understand Lady." He said, the faintest of frowns drawing across his features.  
  
Cariana made up her mind. No matter what it did to the timeline, she could not carry her thoughts around with her like this. Eventually, they would consume her from the inside. She began to speak.  
  
Elrond listened, his expression sober as Cariana talked. All her thoughts and feelings that she had had since she came to Middle Earth were pulled out and laid bare, open to view. As she talked, she felt the knot of tension that she had not been aware of slowly release inside her, the poisons that it had been spewing forth slowing in their torrent until it dried to a trickle.  
  
Finally, Cariana finished and fell silent. Elrond just looked at her, his dark eyes fathomless. But Cariana could almost feel his emotions battering at her, confusion and resolve.  
  
"Nothing happens without a reason Cariana. Your presence here has a reason," he told her gently. "But it is up to you to find it."  
  
Resolve swelled up in her, bolstering her. He had not questioned the truth of her tale, but took it as fact. "Thank you Elrond." she replied, but though the words may have been formal, the emotion behind them and her expression conveyed her intense gratitude.  
  
She left the room filled with a desire to wander, but with no destination in mind.  
  
She found herself outside a room in an unknown section of Rivendell. She peered in through the partially open door and saw the sleeping form of Frodo. Evidently the exertion of being reunited with his friends had tired him.  
  
He shifted in his sleep and the shirt that he was wearing gaped slightly. But Cariana's eyes were not drawn to the pale flesh that rose and fell gently with his breathing, but to the Ring. It gleamed golden, bewitchingly, serenading her with a seducing song.  
  
Caught by some emotion she could not name, she cast her mind and her new powers out to the Ring.  
  
A monstrous concussion rocked through her skull, and she heard a voice calling words in a strange tongue. She felt herself falling and screamed, but her scream was not audible, but poured out of her mouth in a visible stream, forming into words.  
  
One Ring to rule them all  
  
One Ring to find them  
  
One Ring to bring them all  
  
And in the darkness bind them.  
  
She awoke in a land of flame and ash. Her feet were planted on dull red rock and a harsh wind gusted at her, blowing her hair backwards. In all directions she could see only a barren land, riddled with rocks and pits, from which leaped flame and lava. But it was the sky that drew her attention. Pure black, it was one encompassing curtain, but white weaved in eldritch patterns across its surface, casting the light she saw by across the world. There was no one else there. She was alone, but she did not feel afraid. Instead she felt right, as if this was where she was supposed to be. But where was this? She had a feeling that she knew. 


	5. Discovery

((A/N Well, here's the next chapter, and so far I don't think she's showing much Sueish indications (though it was touch and go) Please read and review!))  
  
She thought she knew where she was. Though nothing in her life had prepared her for this, she knew.  
  
She turned, knowing that she would find him there. He was clad in a black cloak, which blew back from his shoulders in the harsh wind. Underneath he wore yet more black, but was not armed. But in a pale face, only a single eye looked back at her, blood red and cat slit.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked, his voice almost a hiss.  
  
"I am Cariana. I am the one."  
  
He bared razor sharp teeth in a snarl. "I am the One!"  
  
"You are the One. I am the One. We are both sides of the same coin. Two, yet ultimately one in the end." She said, understanding sweeping over her.  
  
She raised her hands to the sky where white swirled against black.  
  
"Show." She said softly, but the earth shuddered and the swirls formed into a new pattern.  
  
An image ran from horizon to horizon in a band around her. It was overlaid by letters in a strange script, but she could still see clearly enough.  
  
She could see the room where she had watched Frodo sleep, what seemed like years ago, but was barely hours. She knew where she was.  
  
Inside the Ring.  
  
((A/N Well, how about that for a twist in the plot? Many thanks again go to my housemate Christian who helped me find where this story was going and inspire me. Thanks!)) 


	6. And so it begins.

((A/N Well, I hope this chapter answers a few questions for you :) As before, none of the characters belong to me apart from Cariana, and the spirit of the Ring. If anyone else wants to write a story with this idea, please feel free. It's a good idea (thanks CJ!), but I'm not sure if my writing is good enough to convey it.))  
  
Cariana stood watching as the view across the skies changed. Beside her the physical form of the Ring's spirit stood. They both scanned the skies, but for different reasons.  
  
Frodo was at the Council of Elrond, and Cariana could feel the power of the Ring reaching out as Frodo laid it on the stone pillar at the centre of the circle of chairs.  
  
"I have you now." the Ring gloated, and snaky black tendrils extended from its hands to the image of Boromir in the sky, in whose eyes avarice gleamed.  
  
Cariana could only watch as the dignified Council disintegrated into something resembling a bar brawl, all over the simple band of gold that lay in the centre. The Ring gloated as its power increased over those there. She could not stand it any longer. She yanked free her sword and swung a stroke that was full of her rage at the incarnation of the Ring. It sliced deep into the body of the host, and the tendrils linking it to those at the Council wavered, turning misty and grey.  
  
"Frodo!" Cariana shrieked imploringly to the sky, as she pulled free her sword, and readied it for another stroke.  
  
"I will take it. I will take the Ring to Mordor." she heard from the view overhead as Frodo stood and took on the task of destroying the Ring. The incarnation snarled at her, ignoring the wound that disfigured its body, which healed as she watched.  
  
Cariana looked down at her hands now. Golden light trailed in thin strands from them, and connected her to all of those present at the Council.  
  
Then complete understanding dawned. She was the force for good within the Ring, as the Ring itself was the force for evil. As it tried to corrupt the Fellowship, she would fight it, and try to overcome its power with her own.  
  
The golden light that flowed from her hands was now like a river in spate, washing the whole Council in its glow.  
  
"You shall be, the Fellowship of the Ring!" Elrond declared. And Cariana nodded. This was how things were to be. The fellowship would be nine, but in the Ring there were two contending powers.  
  
"And which one of us will triumph." She whispered. If life followed the same path as the books she had read, then good would triumph. But would things be different in this real universe? 


End file.
